A hydrologic circuit for water-flow is comparable to an electric circuit for the flow of electrons (or conductance of electricity). The circuit consists of various arrangements of resistors, capacitors, and conductors. The resistors in a hydrologic circuit are various forms of hindrances are narrows, sluices, dams or other forms of constrictions that slow down, or prevent altogether, the movement of groundwater. The capacitors are various kinds of natural or man-made water-reservoirs, in which water is stored, and discharge or leakage can be reduced to a minimum by insulation. The conductors are open channels for surface flow (river), underground tunnels for subsurface flow (subterranean river), or channelized flow in a porous and permeable medium (groundwater).
The current practices of constructing hydrologic circuits, such as irrigation systems, has one major disadvantage, much of the water is lost by evaporation during storage in reservoir lakes and during transport in open channels. Furthermore, much water is lost by evaporation when it is fed to soil for plant-growth, and such evaporative loss in agricultural use has led to salinization of soil. A hydrologic circuit exposing water directly to evaporation is comparable to an electric circuit without insulation. To remedy the situation and to reduce or completely prevent evaporative loss, underground systems of underground cisterns and tunnels are constructed. Those systems have been constructed, for example, in arid regions of Middle East, Northwest China, and South America. On a smaller scale, networks of pipes and tubing have been invented, and water is directly fed to where it is needed for plant growth, or for other purposes, with a minimum of loss during transport.
The underground systems of cisterns and tunnels and the manufactured systems of pipes and tubing are costly. The present invention contemplates an alternative system, called the integrated hydrologic circuit (IHC), of water reservoirs and canals which are filled by a porous medium, such as sand or gravel or plastic, so that water is stored and transported in a porous medium. The IHC can be built in humid as well as in arid regions. The essence of the invention is
1a) to build a facility for water-storage in a porous medium,
1b) to enlarge the storage capacity of the porous medium of a natural system, such as a valley stream,
2) make use of, or to construct various forms of insulation against evaporative loss, including the use of a layer of porous medium as insulation in the construction of hydrologic circuits for groundwater flow during the storage, transport, and consumption of water.
Through novel designs of the paths of groundwater flow, the supply and demand can be balanced, and the rate of flow can be adjusted using Darcy's Law.